1927 Renault Type RA Two-Door Cabriolet by Million-Guiet
Offered by Bring a Trailer Auctions | May 2024
The Type RA was produced by Renault from late 1926 through 1928, when it was replaced by the much-more modern Vivastella. Just 344 15 CV Type RA chassis were built during that time, so it was rare then, much less now.
This car sports one-off coachwork by Million-Guiet and has seating for five: two front seats, a sideways-facing rear seat, and a two-person rumble seat. Power is from a 3.2-liter inline-six.
Displayed at the 1926 Paris and New York auto shows, this car was purchased new by a family in New York, where it remained for 60 years. The next owner restored it and then parked it away. It wasn’t until 2017 when it reemerged. You should check out more on this one here.
Bugatti’s Type 40 was produced from 1926 through 1930. In that time, just 796 examples were made, including this one, which originally wore sedan bodywork. The model was powered by a 1.5-liter inline-four.
But the story here is twofold. One, the bodywork. It was in the 1930s or ’40s when the car was rebodied with wooden rear coachwork. It bounced around France for a few years before story number two comes into play: ownership. In 1958 it was sold to American Bugatti collector John Shakespeare.
In 1964, Shakespeare made one of the worst decisions in the history of car collecting: he sold his entire collection to the Schlumpf brothers in France. The brothers, of course, assembled a massive hoard of cars, with a focus on Bugattis, at the expense of their hard-working employees, who eventually rioted and took control of the factory and collection. It now lives on as the national automotive museum of France. Everything in there, locked away forever, never to be enjoyed as they were meant to be: driven.
However, this car was part of the museum’s “reserve” collection. That is, “extras.” When you have the car collecting status that Peter Mullin did, sometimes you can escape some trapped cars, and he bought the entire Schlumpf reserve in 2008. He died recently, and Gooding is liquidating his museum. So, through some roundabout circumstances over 60 years, the car is resurfacing and may someday again be driven. The estimate is $100,000-$150,000. More info can be found here.
1927 Hispano-Suiza H6B Coupe-Chauffeur by Eugene Girard Fils
Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 1, 2024
Hispano-Suiza’s H6 went on sale at the end of WWI in 1919 with an engine that was essentially half of a WWI V12 aircraft engine. It would be the company’s flagship model throughout the 1920s, with the H6B arriving in 1922 and the H6C in 1924.
The engine is a 6.6-liter inline-six rated at 135 horsepower. This car was delivered new in Paris, where it was rebodied in 1933 with the coachwork you see here. It was later parked in a print shop, where it was discovered in 1967… by its current owner.
It has not been restored – and it hasn’t been used recently either, which is a shame because the engine has since seized. Running or not, it’s still excellent and comes with an estimate of $165,000-$240,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Gooding & Company | London, U.K. | September 3, 2022
We’ve featured a Voisin C14 before, and we’ve featured this body style on a different Voisin model. But when a car looks like this, it’s hard not to pay it special attention. The C14 was produced from 1927 to 1932, a fairly long time, and was an evolution of the earlier C11, which itself was Voisin’s first six-cylinder car. But still, they only made 1,795 of them in that time.
Power is from a 2.3-liter sleeve-valve inline-six that was rated at 66 horsepower. Factory bodies included four-door sedans, two-door coupes, and this, the Lumineuse, which had a lot of glass, most of which slants inward as it moves up.
The paintwork here is a real attention-grabber. Not the original scheme, it was inspired by an artist’s hand-drawn Vogue cover of an open Voisin wearing a similar paint job. All of these things (Voisin. Lumineuse. Crazy paint) add up to one thing: an estimate of $330,000-$425,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Oldtimer Galerie | Gstaad, Switzerland | December 29, 2021
It’s been a while since a great, coachbuilt Hispano-Suiza has come across this desk. But this one is pretty stunning. It carries a body by Hermann Spohn, who was well known as the primary body constructor for Maybach. Well, this very body was lifted from a Maybach Zeppelin around 1930 and applied to this chassis in place of the original Convertible Victoria coachwork.
The H6B was the middle child of the H6 line, debuting in 1922 and being sold alongside the later H6C for a while as well. It’s powered by a 6.6-liter inline-six originally rated at 135 horsepower.
This particular car was in the U.S. for some time prior to 1990, and it returned to Europe in 2003. The current owner acquired it in 2018, and a restoration of some degree was carried out in the last two years. The pre-sale estimate is $380,000-$435,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Monterey, California | August 13-14, 2021
Delage is probably best remembered for some of their swoopy coachbuilt models of the 1930s. But as early as 1908, the company was involved in grand prix racing. They introduced an impressive grand prix car in 1914 that would go on to win the Indianapolis 500 that year.
They took the war off, as well as the following five years, before returning to the track. New rules in 1926 led Delage to design the 15-S-8, a car powered by a supercharged 1.5-liter inline-eight. It was an engineering feat, with twin-cam heads and two-stage blower. Horsepower was about 170 at a screaming 8,000 rpm. That’s a lot of revs for 1927.
For 1927, they company took their 1926 cars and tweaked them a bit. Four 1927 examples were produced, with this being the last. Changes included relocating the exhaust and shifter. The competition history for this car includes:
1927 Grand Prix of ACF Montlhery – 3rd (with Andre Morel)
1927 Spanish Grand Prix – DNF (with Morel)
1927 British Grand Prix at Brooklands – 3rd (with Albert Divo)
1929 Indianapolis 500 – 7th (with Louis Chiron)
1930 French Grand Prix – 6th (with Robert Senechal)
1931 Italian Grand Prix – 9th (with Senechal)
1931 French Grand Prix – 5th (with Senechal)
1933 Eifelrennen – 1st in class (with Earl Howe)
1933 Avusrennen – 3rd (with Howe)
That’s a pretty impressive resume, mostly because was competitive for nearly a decade (it saw regular competitive use through 1935). After WWII, two of the four Delage 15-S-8 race cars were acquired by the same guy who also bought some spares. He ended up assembling three complete cars by mixing and matching parts. This car’s history since is described in more detail here. You can read more from this sale here.
Offered by H&H Auctioneers | Duxford, U.K. | April 14, 2021
The Austin Seven (or 7) was a landmark British car. It was like the British Model T – it was extremely popular, cheap, and reliable. It helped put the UK on wheels. It was introduced in 1923, and variants of it remained in production until 1939. The car was licensed all over the world, including by Rosengart in France, BMW in Germany, and American Austin in the US. Its legendary status was cemented when the original Mini was launched in 1959 as the “Austin Seven.”
The 747cc inline-four made approximately seven horsepower, hence the name. It had a three-speed manual gearbox and what we now think of as “conventional” controls. Quite a few body syles were offered, including this four-seat “Chummy” tourer.
This particular car has been in dry storage for some time and could probably do for some reconditioning. It is selling at no reserve alongside a few other Seven variants. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by The Vault | Online | October 1-14, 2020
Maurice Wolfe had already been floating around the automotive world for some time by 1912, when he purchased the Clark Motor Car Company of Shelbyville, Indiana, and moved it to Piqua, Ohio, where he would change the name to the Meteor Motor Car Company in 1915. Two six-cylinder models were offered in 1915, and a V-12 touring car was advertised in 1916.
From 1917 through 1930, Meteor offered “Custom Pleasure Cars” on demand. The only “production” vehicles they made at that time were ambulances and funeral cars. And, for a hot second in 1927, they built 27 examples of this Yellowstone National Park touring… bus? Car? They were built at the request of the U.S. government.
It’s powered by an inline-four and features an oak rear bumper and replacement wood seats. Meteor eventually segued entirely into the coachbuilding business in the early 1930s. They were purchased by the Wayne bus company in 1954 and were then rebranded as Miller-Meteor. The brand was shuttered in 1979. On a brighter note, this car will sell at no reserve. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by Historics Auctioneers | Ascot Racecourse, U.K. | September 26, 2020
Bean Cars was an offshoot of an older company that dated back to 1822. It was started as a foundry by Absolom Harper. Harper’s granddaughter married George Bean, who would take over the company in 1901. Cars didn’t arrive until 1919, which was more or less a frantic attempt to fill the void left by the lack of need for munitions after the armistice.
So for the next 12 years, Bean produced passenger cars and commercial vehicles. In 1926, they launched the 18/50HP, which was powered by a 3.0-liter Meadows-sourced inline-six. Only about 500 examples were produced before the end of 1927, and Historics reports that only four “Super Sport Open Tourers” were constructed.
It’s Bentley-esque, that’s for sure. But it’s also probably pretty usable. This, the only surviving model of its type, is expected to fetch $175,000-$195,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by Silverstone Auctions | Online | July 31-August 1, 2020
Benjamin was a car company founded in 1921 by Maurice Jeanson not far from Paris. They specialized in cyclecars, or light cars with small engines and cycle-type wheels. In 1927, the company opened a second factory and rebranded from Benjamin to Benova, which supposedly meant “New Benjamin.”
Anyway, the new company lasted through 1929. At least 300 examples of the B3 were built between 1927 and 1929 and they were powered by a 945cc Chapuis-Dornier inline-four. Factory bodies included a coupe and two torpedos.
This car is quite sporty, wearing a racing-style body dressed in French Grand Prix Car blue (not a real paint color name). It almost looks like a cross between a period Indy car and an Amilcar. But it’ll be cheaper than either of those with an estimate between $19,000-$22,500. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.